1. Technical Field of the Invention
This invention relates to user interface generation. More particularly, it relates to dynamic uploading of user interface generation logic by users at a client browser.
2. Background Art
In a typical client/server system, the functionality available to each user via remote terminals may be customized in accordance with the needs and authorization of the user and/or entity. Terminals may access the system using, for example, browser software technology or other electronic accessing methods. In general, reports and other information may be presented to a user in a user interface (UI) using known web page formatting techniques.
A typical user interface, such as the IBM® Lotus® QuickPlace® user interface, includes a sidebar table of contents (TOC), page title, author and modified field, actions bar, logo, path, page content, and actions buttons, such as quick search, advanced search, what's new, chat, notify, print, tutorial and help. Each of these is customized by using tags or selectors which deal with borders, background, text, and so forth, in accordance with a style sheet.
Skins control everything about the user interface, including layout and style. Layout defines the positioning of components on the screen. Style defines the form and colors of those components. Changes to the user interface such as editing a skin can be made via a browser using Web authoring tools such as an HTML editor. In making such changes, a standard default style sheet is output with a theme, so that one need only to specify the selectors that are to be changed. Undefined properties will fall back to those defined in the default style sheet.
There is a need in the art for a system and method which enhances the upload of skin components so that they may contain user interface logic and point to Java code.
Domino, IBM, the IBM Logo, Lotus, Notes, QuickPlace are trademarks of International Business Machines in the United States, other countries, or both.